There was nice discussion about tommy tarbukas and how to play a sequence of notes which i posted on and will harmon responded to, but the page became unreadable/corrupted on my computer.
will (and all of you) could you post on this thread? Please.
I did see will you said you wondered about keeping the arch of your fingers ok and not muffling the sound etc.
i cant believe you have shorter fingers than i do (tho i guess its possible). you need to get to get your left hand in a position that allows a vertical drop of youer fingers on the strings (in those awkward keys of 2 and 3 flats)
also take it slowly. try just playing a scale from "a flat" to the f and keep ALL your fingers down as you do it (after they have played their part). this may seem ridiculous or awkward but the reasoning is that 1) it gets your fingers and hand to stretch a little and
2) by keeping fingers in place all you need to do to sound a note is "lift"the other fingers rather than lift one finger and put another one down.
I shouldn't blame my left-hand difficulties on "short" fingers, just uncooperative ones. I have an arthitis-like condition (and a well mangled pinky from repeated childhood injuries), so after 20 years of fiddling I think I've met my natural left-hand limits. I do have that vertical drop to the fingerboard you mention, even in awkward keys, and most tunes don't pose too much of a problem. But that reach from f nat to e flat in Tarbukas is more than my hand can comfortably do, at speed anyway, despite years of stretches and strengthening exercises and plain old fiddling. I can live with it by making the simple adjustment of coming off the f nat as I land on the e flat/d combo. Yes, it means a little extra motion compared to leaving things planted, and I know that's not as efficient as it could be, but it works (well, almost, most of the time .
I will probably give your tips a good try and see if they help, but I'm not expecting any miracle cures.
playing awkward keys
playing awkward keys
There was nice discussion about tommy tarbukas and how to play a sequence of notes which i posted on and will harmon responded to, but the page became unreadable/corrupted on my computer.
will (and all of you) could you post on this thread? Please.
I did see will you said you wondered about keeping the arch of your fingers ok and not muffling the sound etc.
i cant believe you have shorter fingers than i do (tho i guess its possible). you need to get to get your left hand in a position that allows a vertical drop of youer fingers on the strings (in those awkward keys of 2 and 3 flats)
also take it slowly. try just playing a scale from "a flat" to the f and keep ALL your fingers down as you do it (after they have played their part). this may seem ridiculous or awkward but the reasoning is that 1) it gets your fingers and hand to stretch a little and
2) by keeping fingers in place all you need to do to sound a note is "lift"the other fingers rather than lift one finger and put another one down.
# Posted on April 28th 2002 by donnchad
Re: playing awkward keys
I shouldn't blame my left-hand difficulties on "short" fingers, just uncooperative ones. I have an arthitis-like condition (and a well mangled pinky from repeated childhood injuries), so after 20 years of fiddling I think I've met my natural left-hand limits. I do have that vertical drop to the fingerboard you mention, even in awkward keys, and most tunes don't pose too much of a problem. But that reach from f nat to e flat in Tarbukas is more than my hand can comfortably do, at speed anyway, despite years of stretches and strengthening exercises and plain old fiddling. I can live with it by making the simple adjustment of coming off the f nat as I land on the e flat/d combo. Yes, it means a little extra motion compared to leaving things planted, and I know that's not as efficient as it could be, but it works (well, almost, most of the time
.
I will probably give your tips a good try and see if they help, but I'm not expecting any miracle cures.
# Posted on April 28th 2002 by Will Harmon